The Gun Club's debut is the watermark for all post-punk roots music. This features the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce's swamped-out brand of roiling rock, swaggerific hell-bound blues, and gothic country. With Pierce's wailing high lonesome slide guitar twinned with Ward Dotson's spine-shaking riffs and the solid yet off-the-rails rhythm section of bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham, the Gun Club burst out of L.A. in the early '80s with a bone to pick and a mountain to move -- and they accomplished both on their debut album. With awesome, stripped to the frame production by the Flesh Eaters' Chris D., Fire of Love blew away all expectations -- and with good reason. Nobody has heard music like this before or since. Pierce's songs were rooted in his land of Texas. On "Sex Beat", a razor-sharp country one-two shuffle becomes a howling wind as Pierce's wasted, half-sung half-howled vocals relate a tale of voodoo, sex, dope, and death. The song choogles like a freight train coming undone in a twister. Here Black Flag, the Sex Pistols, Son House, and the coughing, hacking rambling ghost of Hank Williams all converge in a reckless mass of seething energy and nearly evil intent. As if the opener weren't enough of a jolt, the Gun Club follow this with a careening version of House's "Preachin the Blues," full of staccato phrasing and blazing slide. But it isn't until the anthemic, opiate-addled country of "She's Like Heroin to Me" and the truly frightening punk-blues of "Ghost on the Highway" that the listener comes to grip with the awesome terror that is the Gun Club. The songs become rock & roll ciphers, erasing themselves as soon as they speak, heading off into the whirlwind of a storm that is so big, so black, and so awful one cannot meditate on anything but its power. Fire of Love may be just what the doctor ordered, but to cure or kill is anybody's guess.

(Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)

Das legendäre und unerreichte Album »Fire of Love« wurde ursprünglich 1981 in den Ruby Studios aufgenommen. Mit diesem Album begann die Karriere der Vorreiter der 80er-Jahre-Szene The Gun Club um ihren charismatischen Frontmann Jeffrey Lee Pierce. The Gun Club können ohne Zweifel als eine der innovativsten und einflussreichsten Bands dieser Ära bezeichnet werden - oft kopiert aber nie erreicht. Besonders ihre Zusammenführung von Delta Blues Elementen in den energetischen Punkrock der L.A. Szene machte diese Platte auf der unzählige Musiker dem »Club« ihre Liebe erklärten, zum Grundstein einer Legende.

Chris D. (aka Chris Desjardins) is a guy whose voice practically defines the notion of "acquired taste," his lyrics are ridiculously pretentious as often as they're pithy and effective (if not more so), and he insists on walking through the same dark corners in his songs so often I'm sure he no longer needs a flashlight, but damned if he doesn't have great taste in musical collaborators. Some of the finest players on the L.A. punk scene made their way through Desjardins's best-known band, the Flesh Eaters, and for 1984's Time Stands Still, a country-influenced album designed to highlight the less-abrasive side of his musical personality, Desjardins rounded up a stellar roster of friends and compatriots to help bring it home. Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from the Blasters, John Doe from X, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers from the Gun Club, Dan Stuart and Chris Cacavas from Green on Red, and Slim Evans from Rank & File are among the musicians who dropped by to join Desjardins on the sessions for Time Stands Still, and from a musical standpoint this is one of the most satisfying albums he's ever made. Desjardins softened the jagged edges of his melodies a bit for these songs, and there's a strange beauty and disquieting presence in these performances that proves Chris makes friends with the right people, especially on the graceful opener "When the Rain Comes Down," the spectral "Little Sister," and the hypnotically powerful title track, propelled by the superb guitar interplay of Doe and Pierce. And while she was hardly a major name on the scene at the time, Desjardins's then-amour Julie Christensen is a consistent and welcome presence as a backing vocalist, adding a calming grace to the music; Chris himself is in typically wobbly and histrionic form, but this time the quality of his surroundings makes up for it.

(by Mark Deming, All Music Guide)

From his humble beginnings as a Box Top, Alex went on to become a Big Star and well respected cult figure among the independent music press and the fans as well. He's got a nice balance of styles here and the rotating cast of musicians helps to keep the record feeling fresh. And if any of you collect "cover tunes" there's a version of "Volare" here to bring tears to your eyes. And the cover photos, well you just can't find that type of sincerity nowadays.

(TralFaz-Archives)

Following the strum of their own twin-guitar attack, Chicago-by-way-of-Kentucky's Eleventh Dream Day issued their second release (the purposefully misspelled), Prarie School Freakout, in 1988. It certainly didn't have much in common with the noise rock other Chicago-area bands like Big Black and the Jesus Lizard were grinding out at the time. Granted, it rocks almost as hard, but sounds a whole lot more Californian, or even Southwestern. References include Neil Young (the guitar work, not the vocals), X (the vocals), the Dream Syndicate (the vocals and the guitar work), and Giant Sand (the raw, country feel). And although they predated the No Depression movement inspired by Belleville, IL's Uncle Tupelo and spin-off bands, Wilco and Son Volt, in the '90s, they were mining similar alt-country territory. By the time they recorded their first full-length (after 1987's self-titled EP), the band's basic sound was in place — they'd already been together for several years — but the songwriting still had a way to go. Each song sounds like it would have been a hoot to witness live, particularly "Watching the Candles Burn," but only a few are particularly memorable. At its worst, the record is also a little samey (a problem that would be rectified on subsequent releases), but then it comprises ten out of an impressive 15 songs recorded in a whirlwind six hours in Louisville, KY, in July. From start to finish, Prarie School Freakout sounds inspired — not tired. One of the more notable indie debuts of the '80s.

(Kathleen C. Fennessy)

Every Day Is a Holly Day features 17 tracks compiled by French record executive Patrick Mathé to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the passing of Buddy Holly. It is a tremendous success with just about every act delivering the goods. Red River's "Rave On" moves like a sensitive Ramones — if there ever was such a thing — following "Words of Love" from Shoes, a cascading Flamin' Groovies-ish '60s pop offering. Elliott Murphy with Modern Lover Ernie Brooks does a nice "Everyday" while Willie "Loco" Alexander wonderfully distorts "Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight." A six-page photo booklet featuring the credits accompanies the CD with heartfelt liner notes from producer Mathé. It's great to hear Frank Rowe and the Classic Ruins give a Bobby Fuller Four rendition of "Love's Made a Fool of You" to the world along with Box Top Alex Chilton producing Lolitas' "Not Fade Away." Tav Falco's Panther Burns, Chris Bailey from the Saints, session guitarist extraordinaire Chris Spedding on a great "It's So Easy," the Slickee Boys, and others may be reverent in their approach, but they also inject a lot of fun into the tribute. So many flavors in this mix add a new dimension to Holly's music, making the sounds easily accessible for those who have had little or no exposure to Buddy's genius. Effective and very worthwhile.

(by Joe Viglione, All Music Guide)